Puzzles

This one was kind of hard!  It was 1000 pieces.  (I don't do the really, really hard ones with extra pieces, or pieces that all fit together no matter what and you have to find the right spot for them some other way).

I am thankful for puzzles.  I can become a little obsessed with them once I've started them, but I have really appreciated having puzzles to do in the last little while.  Both of the ones I have worked on lately belong to Jake and he worked on them with me.  I like that puzzles give me something I can do with Jake, and I like that they give me something to do when I don't want to do any of my projects.  Puzzles could be an unfortunate stalling technique, but they have sometimes been a much appreciated stress reliever!

This one is only 500 pieces and some of the pieces are really weirdly shaped, which actually may have made it easier to do.  It was a fun one.  It's hard to see, but the T-Rex is holding a knife and fork.  Apparently he's a civilized T-Rex?

The point is, that puzzles have been a blessing, and I have the next one ready to go!

Happy 33rd Anniversary to Derek and Me!

 Our anniversary is in May like Derek's birthday and, like Derek's birthday, it has already passed by.  It was on the 11th.  We celebrated on Friday afternoon and enjoyed eating lunch in the car, going to the conservation garden in West Jordan.  We then went a few other random places and out to eat.  I love my dates with Derek!

We found a trail to hike on somewhere.  It was my favorite part of our adventure.

Derek and I are standing on the bridge below when I took this picture.  It's just a little hard to tell and the bridge was over a dry river bed.

Did you know that it's kind of hard to find cacti to buy that are like these that will grow outside in our part of Utah?  There are plenty we can grow indoors but it's a little more rare to find these.

This is a little over 28 years ago with our first two girls.  
Time really goes by quickly.

Mother's Day 2021

 

Flowers from Derek.
These were some truly beautiful roses!

Derek got me some flowers for outside in my pot too, and my children always treat me very well.  I am thankful to be a Mom!  

This Mother's Day I was particularly thankful for both Derek's Mom and Mine who provided much needed listening ears to help me when I needed it.  Life throws unexpected curveballs at us sometimes and I am thankful that both Moms were available to talk to!  

I know people who have not been able to have children who still do a lot of mothering and who have made a difference in my own life and the lives of my children.  I hope they had a happy Mother's Day too.

Derek Was Born in May

 And we celebrated!  Derek is awesome.  

I decided to let you see my ridiculous artwork.  I am not really much of an artist, but I had fun drawing on Derek's present!  Derek called this a dinosaur with birth defects -- but hey he's a happy dinosaur!

It's possible that Dan thought this was an exploding log.  In case that's what you think, I'll just tell you that it is quite obviously a volcano :-)

If this isn't obviously a plant and a little piece of sun to you, then it's okay if you make up your own explanation of what I drew.  Just one more side after this.

I was asked if the stick people represented Derek and me.  Not really, I just felt like drawing stick people who were wearing hats!

I guess you can tell how old Derek is turning!  He is now old enough to live in a 55 and older neighborhood!

Derek's birthday is on Cinco de Mayo (May 5) and it's been a while since then.  We obviously did something, but I'm afraid I'm a little vague on what we did!  I think we had his birthday dinner on Sunday, and I took these pictures on his actual birthday.  I got fun plates and then we didn't really eat what I had planned and everyone just had whatever they wanted.  He didn't even get dessert.  The candles are stuck in frosting.  Maybe I'll make his more traditional birthday dessert when it's a hot day.  Homemade peach ice cream is best eaten on a warm day -- in my opinion -- but we'll eat it any day really.

I am super thankful for Derek who has a great sense of humor and who works really hard and taking care of his family in all of the ways he can.  We all love him!

Reacting With Gratitude Not Guilt

Saturday morning I slept in, and even when I woke up late I did not want to get up and face the day.  There are so many projects to do, and they all sounded hard, and staying in bed sounded easy and comfortable.  Maybe I could hide from my projects and challenges by hiding under the covers?

Derek eventually came in to check on me.  He had gotten up earlier when Teddy was crying outside.  I could see that he had already been working on one of our projects.  He went back out and back to work and I dragged myself out of bed and got moving.  My day wasn't entirely useless.  I did accomplish a few things.  It is just that Derek ended up doing a LOT more of the things we had talked about doing the day before.

Did I react with gratitude?  Sadly -- though I was grateful -- the reigning feeling was guilt.  I "should" have been up helping.  I "should" have painted shelves with Derek, or helped get the desk ready to paint, or paint the mirror frames.  Derek works so hard all week, and I was sure I had just let him down.  I was sorry.

On Sunday it dawned on me that Derek, who is always impressively good at helping, and getting things done, did not do what he did to produce guilt.  He would have appreciated my gratitude so much more!  He made progress on projects that have been stalled for months!  He did things that I really did not want to do.

I am thankful to have been reminded again that it is better to react with gratitude and not with guilt!

God's Kindness

My self assigned scripture to memorize for April is Isaiah 54:10.  This is a favorite of mine because of a song by Rob Gardner called "My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee".  

For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

I have tried to be perfect.  It doesn't work. But no matter how many times I fail, God is kind.  He has mercy.  I get to try again.  I might even be getting slightly better at not beating myself up before giving myself a little grace too.  Slightly:-)  Knowing that I have a loving Father in Heaven and a loving Savior helps me to get up and keep going.  I am thankful for their love and kindness, and for their ever present mercy. 

**Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

Laughter or Tears

This is all I could get of my bike if I was in the picture!

This is the bike that my Dad bought me for my birthday (I think) when I was in college.  I've had it since 1987 at least -- and maybe 1986!  Jake fixed my tire for me and has been good about coming on my, so far, rather torturous bike rides with me!

 A few years ago I was trying to teach myself to run and I mentioned on a blog that when I push myself really hard -- I cry.  I had a blogger friend who commented that when she went to the gym she knew her trainer had pushed her really hard if she started laughing a lot.  Truthfully, I'm a little jealous of that reaction!  

One of my goals is to try the C25K program again.  In the past I never did even get to the point where I could run a mile at once, but I did notice that I felt better, so I'm trying again.  My nice family members are helping me out.  Kayli agreed to do it with me, and Derek and Jake came the first day.  What happened?  By the end I had tears running down my face because it was so hard for me!  I have to work so hard when that happens to be nice to myself!  I don't love exercising but I am not lazy! 

My other goal is to ride my bike 10 miles in one ride.  Those who bike a lot will know that this is "easy".  Me?  I thought I'd try riding from here to the Elk Ridge road and back (Probably less than 2 miles total).  The first time was awful!  It was a little too cold and my ear hurt and so I was dizzy when I got home and my heart was beating really hard and I spent some quality time feeling sorry for myself while lying on the floor -- and trying again to be nice to me! The good news?  Even though my legs felt like rubber I did not fall off of my bike when I got home! 

I know that if I stick with it, it will get easier.  I also am aware that if I push too hard, I will injure myself because I've done that before! When you push yourself really hard what happens to you?  I am trying to make peace with my tears because it means I am pushing myself.  I am even trying to do a little cheering for myself with some slightly forced laughter before I cry.  Who knows.  Maybe one day my response will be a natural laugh, and the tears won't show up at all!  

Getting Away

 Derek and I felt like we could really use a break, and so we scheduled time to go to St. George.  Thankfully, Derek's parents rearranged their schedule a little to allow us to use their nice St. George house even though there was a bit of a mix up with our scheduling.  On the way there we stopped in Cedar City to see Connor and Amanda who we don't get to see too often, and we got to meet Rocky who was visiting from the Phillipines (and who knows Japanese and who Connor enjoys talking to in Japanese).  We played Apples to Apples and it was fun.  I maintain that it would have been fun even if I hadn't won :-)

Me, Connor, Amanda, and friend Rocky

This is Derek and me traveling to St. George.  We were just sending pictures off to Kayli for fun.

Friday Derek and I walked around the botanical gardens and then we went out to Gunlock Reservoir.  This was the scene of my torn hamstring three years ago.  It still bugs me, but I did NOT re-injure it while we were there.  It was a drier year this year so there were no puddles for me to jump over and accidentally hurt myself.

Someone made a cool hut thing.  It wasn't us!

Derek and me at the reservoir

The clouds were pretty awesome on the way there!

This is the tree we saw that Derek loved and wished we could have in our yard -- and we could!  It would just be dead after winter.  It was meant for warmer climates.

We took dinner to my parent's house on Friday night and Trisa came too, with Chewy.  The next day my Mom fixed us and Ray and Lori dinner and we visited again.  It is always good to see them, and I seem to always fail to pull out the camera and document our visit!  On Saturday we went to Ray and Lori's property and saw their footings.  Their house building project has begun!

It was really good to have a get away with Derek.  

Spring Break(s)

Me, Dan, Trisa, Kayli and Jake

The first full week of April was spring break for Dan (who is in 9th grade) and Trisa (who teaches Kindergarten).  Derek and I got our 2nd Covid shots on Tuesday and so Wednesday was not a good Spring break day!  

Monday we were able to help celebrate Tia's birthday.  Tuesday I took Dan to the library.  Thursday was our adventure.  All of those who live here, minus Derek who was still feeling yucky and working anyway, went to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.  I totally stank at taking pictures.  Kayli took the one above and I took the two below.  I've been there a couple of times before with Dan and I think so many things are awesome that I just didn't bother taking pictures.  Instead I decided Derek needed to come with me and see for himself another time (and thus it got added to my 54 before 54 list -- see post from the 14th).  

I really enjoyed looking at all of the creatures and the jungle.  I even somewhat enjoyed watching people who spent so much time taking selfies that I wondered if they actually saw the sharks they were posing in front of!  

This past week was Kayli's Spring break.  The weather is less cooperative.  There were impressively dark clouds, rain, hail, and some really loud thunder!  We went for a walk on the Spanish Fork River trail (not in the rain) and painted pottery at the Color Me Mine.  We got smoothies too.  Mmmm.  The rest of her Spring Break was left to her since Derek and I took off and left her with Jake and Dan.  I was glad to be included in the days I was here!

Tia's Birthday

Tia's birthday was April 6th.  We celebrated the day before that.  She and Mike came over, along with her Christensen Grandparents, to eat dinner.  It was a nice day and we barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs per Tia's request.  We also had Strawberry delight and sang to Tia.  After dinner most of the family went off to the batting cages and hit some softballs.  Then, Tia and Mike came back so Tia could open her presents, most of which she had picked herself.

Tia's presents included a book, a mystery solving game, and some........maternity clothes!  We get to be grandparents!  YAY!  We on purpose opened presents after her grandparents left because Tia and Mike hadn't told them yet.  They wanted to wait until after seeing the doctor, and that was the next day on Tia's actual birthday.  

Mike sent me this picture from their appointment.  Baby is due at the end of October!  So exciting for us!

I love Tia and Mike.  They make me smile and are genuinely good people.  We are all happy for them -- and for us!

54 Before 54

This year I will be turning --- you guessed it ---- 54.  Yesterday it sounded like fun to do one of those lists people sometimes do where they do 30 things before their 30th birthday or 25 before their 25th.  Since my birthday isn't until the end of September, I figured I had time to do 54 things if I didn't make them too hard.  

I am not my enthusiastic competing cousins who would probably have managed to throw at least a half marathon into their plan if not some other super hard race.  Mine includes things like "have a picnic using my jean quilt", "learn a line dance", and "sing every day for a month".  I do have some exercising things included.  Even a race!  I don't have to actually race before my birthday, but I do need to sign up for a breast cancer walk / run before my birthday.  It's looking like that will be a late October thing (which means I'll likely be dressing warm).  I am happy to have racing buddies if anyone is interested!  Just don't expect me to go fast.  You can go fast and wait for me at the finish line!

When Derek heard what I was doing he said something like, "can you make one of your things to not make any more lists?"  The answer was to laugh.  I actually have become a little anti-list in some ways.  I get tired of trying to keep track of things, and I don't want to define my worth by what I accomplish.  I also don't want to become upset that I didn't do something on a list of things that I made up myself for fun.  On the other hand, I can be motivated by lists -- especially lists I like.  My list does have some things that are out of my comfort zone (say -- racing).  It has things I'm good at, like studying.  But mainly it has things to do, including things I would do without my list, like "move into my house".  All in all, I like my list and checked the first thing off today!  Yay for me (and Kayli) who came with me to Color Me Mine and painted some pottery!

**The picture above was taken by Derek.  The elephant is available for purchase at RC Willey :-)

A Gift

***
A Gift

In a garden dark and still

A good Son knelt, to do His Father’s will

And soon He fell upon His face

Taking on Himself our disgrace.

And while He suffered an angel came

To comfort Him in His intense pain.

But the weight of our sins no one else could bear

It had to be endured as He suffered there.

And once the pain eased up enough that He could walk again.

The soldiers came into the night, and they arrested Him.

And after He’d been beaten by those He came to save

He endured the cross and chose to leave His body for the grave.

And lightning came, and the Earth did quake

His friends His body they did take

And reverently, but quickly too

They laid Him to rest, as friends would do.

And mourned His loss, for it was very great.

And they did not understand His fate.

And sadness reigned, and a hopeless night

Before Easter came, with the morning light.

For Christ had risen from the dead and had called Mary’s name.

And because of this, the world was saved, and would never be the same.

Death had not power to keep us now.

Sin was conquered if we just learn how

To turn to the one who conquered all

And saved us from death and the fall.

Christ lives and loves us.  He’s our friend.

His life a gift, our lives to mend.

by Sherie

*** Picture by Harry Anderson used by permission from

churchofjesuschrist.org

Victory!

Victory!

There is a garden at the base of the Mount of Olives named Gethsemane.

If the trees could speak, I wonder what they would say to you and me?

Their master, and ours, knelt there so long ago.

And suffered so much pain. Pain that we will never know.

And then He was arrested, and taken off to trial.

And those who loved Him really hoped he’d be free in a little while.

But the next day came with Jesus stumbling under a heavy load,

As he carried His heavy cross down the dusty road.

And people mocked and spit and laughed, while others hid in pain.

So deeply sad that their friend would die -- not to be seen again.

And nails pierced through His hands just could not be enough

They nailed His wrists to hold Him up upon the cross so rough.

He forgave the soldiers for the duty they performed

And for the mocking laughter, for they knew not whom they scorned.

And as He suffered agony, His mother suffered too

And Jesus asked His friend to help with what He could no longer do.

And crying out in agony to the Father that He loved

Who seemed to hide so far away in His heavenly home above,

Christ chose to die, for you and me, to save us from our sin,

And quickly He was taken down to a sepulchre so dim.

His followers mourned and howled and cried

Their sadness deep, and justified,

But on the third day, in the early morn

Christ rose, and hope again was born.

For death was conquered. Men were free.

To follow Christ for the victory

Over sin, and death, and sorrow too.

The greatest gift ever given to me, and you.

by Sherie